Beirut - Postcards From Italy
July 5, 2007 · Print This Article
Beirut - Postcards From Italy (Chords)
Beirut - Postcards From Italy (mp3) via beirutband.com
My recent Fluke acquisition reminded me of the video for Beirut’s Elephant Gun. While I was checking it out, I came across this impromptu performance Postcards From Italy and decided I had to work out the song.
Beirut mainman Zach Condon’s choice of ukulele wasn’t entirely voluntary. In an interview with Pitchfork he explained that after falling of a bridge age 14, “my left wrist is an inch-and-a-half shorter than my [right one] and doesn’t quite have the mobility to wrap around a guitar neck without a bit of pain.” I’d say falling off a bridge was a small price to pay for avoiding the fate of becoming a guitar player.
Postcards From Italy is divided into two halves. The first half has this riff repeated:
If you’d rather strum chords through this section, moving between F and A will do it for you.
As the lyrics shift from the nostalgia in the first half of the song to the anticipation of the second half, so the music shifts with it. There is a small correction I would make to the fingering of the chords in the chart. It suggests playing the C chord with your third finger. But using you pinkie (little finger) allows for a much easier transition into the Bbadd9. You could keep your pinky there through all the chords (creating a Dm7 rather than Dm). It creates an effective drone through the chord changes.
The rhythm for this second section is not played the same every time, but I play the basic pattern like this:
The up arrows indicated down strums and the down arrows indicate up strums (don’t look at me, I didn’t invent the system).
Here’s the rhythm played slowly, then up to tempo.
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what would i play without you? great selection of songs here.
Thanks, maduke. Glad to be of service.
hey, good job with the uke tabs. i’ve tabbed beirut’s entire gulag orkestar album (http://www.saltatory.net/blog/?page_id=12). I’ve found that Faug (2110) works better than A in postcards from italy.
Nice one, Chris.
To my ears A sounds better. We’ll have to agree to disagree on that one.
[…] tabbing Postcards From Italy, I was going to make my way through the whole of Gulag Orkestar. Luckily, Chris from Saltatory […]
This is awesome! Any tips on how to hammer down from the 2nd to the 3rd fret? My hands are small and stupid; and I’m having the hardest time hammering down from the 2nd to 3rd fret.
The main tip for hammer-ons is to make sure you’ve got a firm grip on the back of the neck so you’ve got something to push against. Other than that, it’s a matter of practice to make sure you are accurate and have enough force.
In this song the only hammer-ons are from the open string to the second fret. The notes on the third fret are all strummed which means you don’t have to worry about producing the volume.
[…] 1. Beirut - Postcards From Italy […]
Thank you so much (I mean, easily a hundred, though not a million…come on, you’ve not landed on Saturn for freaks’ sake) for this tab. I’m a struggling uke player who loves Beirut (the band not the place, though I’ve never been, so I’m not writing it off, I’m just not qualified to judge, though I might be going in April, as it happens…I’ll let you know how it goes) but has never been able to “get” it. It’s so clear now, with the hammer on to form the first F chord, then A. I can see how it all works. I’m like Sylar. I have you to thank.
Now, any help in reading the tab for Toxic…I’ve been to EZFolk, but I still can’t see what symbol indicates a hammer on/pull off, etc.
Less like Sylar now, I admit. But a good thing, no?
La la la la Heroes spoilers la la la la not listening la la la la
A hundred ‘you’re welcome’s right back at you.
I think I’ll have to write my own guide to reading tab.
See, now that would be great. The basics I get, but I can’t work out what’s a slide, what’s a hammer on, what’s a pull off.
Story of my life, I suppose.
I’ll get a proper one done sometime, but here’s a quickie.
It is a bit confusing. Hammer ons and pull offs look the same. They’re both arches between the fret numbers. If the second number is higher than the first, it’s a hammer on. If the second number is smaller, it’s a pull off.
A slide has an arch and a diagonal line between them.
Here’s a quick image of them:
Hope that helps
Perfect, thanks. That is exactly what I wanted to know. A thousand golden Fluke points to you sir.
Hi there, great tab- this song is the reason I decided to learn the uke! I have managed to get the first half of the song alright but was wondering if you could help me out with the change of strumming pattern in the second half. Thanks.
Hi, Erin. The basic pattern is this:
If you don’t read tab, the up arrows indicated down strums and the down arrows indicate up strums. I’ve recorded myself playing the rhythm slowly then up to tempo here:
http://ukulelehunt.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/postcards.mp3
Hope that helps.
My search to find accurate beirut uke tabs is finally over!… Thank you Woodshed SO MUCH. If I were to make the request of Rhineland (Heartland) could you help me figure it out?
[…] Postcards from Italy (Chords and Tab) […]
This is a damn fine description of how to play this song. I also have trouble reading the strumming descriptions, but I know it’s near impossible to illustrate them.
I was just about to write, “Ukulala has done a really useful video about…” Then I realised it was you.
haha, well, I appreciate the thought (and the plug, of course)!
yeah, i did work it out eventually, from your description and from videos I found of other people covering it. The strumming is the hardest part to figure out or explain.
Great! Thank you for this tab. I finally managed it to play this song right, but I still have one trouble, moving my index finger from the third string to the second string when changing from A to F… It’s because how I hold my uke, the steel goes down when i try to change to a lower string. Does anyone have a idea how to hold my uke in a better way so the steel wont go down?
What do you mean by “the steel goes down?”
excuse my ignorance (very new to ukulele), but I think the end bit goes like this.
3-2-1-3 then 0-0-1-0 then 0-2-1-0 then 0-0-0-3
i’m sure if you try that progression, you will agree!
thanks for the tab though, this was the first song I tried on ukulele
-Dan
Thanks for your opinion, Dan.